- Streamers are now included in the ATSC loudness guidelines for advertising
- Ads should not be higher than the programs before or after them
- California law is driving change across the United States
For almost as long as there have been ads on television, advertisers have tried to make those ads as loud as possible through various technological tricks. After years of increasingly loud ads, the US imposed loudness limits on cable, satellite and TV broadcasts, but the legislation did not apply to streamers – until now.
ATSC, the broadcast standards organization, has published a major revision of its guidance on digital television loudness. And this version applies to streamers as well as broadcast and cable.
The document is called A/85 Recommended Practice: Techniques for Establishing and Maintaining Audio Loudness for Digital Television. And while it’s a technical document, the summary is simple: STREAMERS, STOP YELLING.
What are the rules for loud ads?
The legislation was introduced in the early 2010s because of an advertising loudness war: Studio tools such as compressors and maximizers can increase perceived loudness, so advertisers turned everything up to 11 to really grab your attention.
When the FCC’s Consumer Call Center began reporting the top complaints in 2002, loud ads were one of the most common reasons for calling.
There are two important pieces of legislation regarding ad loudness in the United States. The first is the US Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act, or CALM Act for short. It came into effect in 2012 and requires commercials to have the same average loudness as the programs they accompany. It forces broadcasters, cable operators and satellite TV providers to implement the A/85 Recommended Practice. Nonprofits are not covered, but political ads are.
However, streamers are not covered by that legislation, but we live in a world where not only do all the major streamers have ad-supported tiers, but today’s TVs and streaming sticks also offer plenty of free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) linear channels.
In 2015, California passed SB 576 to include streaming in its noise reduction regulations. This legislation went into effect this month, July 2026, and applies to any service that serves consumers in the state. ATSC’s revised version of A/85 makes it truly nationwide.
The guide is not just a list of “don’ts” items. It recommends best practices in sound measurement, monitoring, production, metadata, dynamic range control and volume control so that TV services can be consistent across multiple platforms and viewers won’t get a different audio experience depending on where they get their shows from. If you’re in California, you should already be hearing the benefits.
Are you considering buying a new TV?
Try our TV size and model finder! You tell it how far you sit from your TV, we’ll tell you what size to buy based on viewing angle advice from picture quality experts, and we’ll recommend our top three TVs in that size at different prices.
Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews and opinions in your feeds.
